Smith, Rachel ., Fredericton, Moncton, New Brunswick, News, Saint John 0

Patles sells rattles, beaded chokers, necklaces, and breastplates at Eagle Pipe Crafts , which he makes his crafts in his home beside the Mirimichi River.

His rattles start as scraps of rawhide. He uses a template to trace the desired shape, cuts it out, then soaks it in water. When he takes them out they are soft and malleable. He dyes each side of the hide with ink and puts them back in water. 

“What a lot of people do is they’ll use a punch, they’ll punch holes in it,” said Patles. “And then they sew it with the sinew, but I don’t do that.”

Instead, he will sew the two pieces of hid together with a needle. To maintain the shape he will put sand in the part of the rattles that shakes.

To keep them from coming apart when being played, he drills into where the wood and raw ride connect then wraps them with sinew. The wood he uses for the base is maple or beech from trees around his area. To finish, he stains and paints the wood.

The shape of the rattle will change depending on the thickness of the hide — each one dries differently.

Patles was first taught to make birch bark rattles from Art Solomon, an Ojibwe elder in Sudsbury, Ontario. Patles himself is from Metepenagiag First Nation, also known as Red Bank.

He said crafts were something that was taken away from Indigenous people who were sent to residential schools and day schools. Patles went to Red Bank Indian Day School growing up, and was kept from speaking the language he spoke at home.

“That’s pretty hard when you’re small and that’s all you speak,” said Patles. “So that’s the same with a lot of parts of our culture, and the crafts — they were almost non-existent”

In the early to mid-seventies, people started making crafts again. The first piece he worked on was beading on a loom.

Patels now makes beaded chokers from hair pipe bone, ceramic beads, and abalone shells. People wear them in pow wows or for everyday use.

Traditionally, men will wear four-row and women will wear three-row.

“But not necessarily,” said Patles. “There’s a lot of women who wear what they want. Who is to say they can’t wear them?”

Patles also makes long breastplates worn during pow wows.  He said other crafters use glass beads about twice the size of his. When a dancer is wearing a full breastplate it can be very heavy, but with his ceramic beads it is relatively light.

“It makes a big difference if you’re dancing all day,” said Patles. 

At pow wows, he gets to see his products in use, and people will often come up to him asking if he made a plate and asking if he can make them one in a similar style.

People will come in with specialty breastplates that need repair. Patles will replace the glass beads with ceramic or some of the leather pieces that have gotten worn and heavy. 

When he posts breastplates on Facebook he said they sell out quickly. 

Besides Facebook, he sells through word of mouth, in markets around Fredericton and Miramichi and on Indigeshop, an online marketplace set up by the Joint Economic Development Agency [JEDI].

Preparation for the Christmas markets has taken up his time in the last few months.

Patles makes drums, drumsticks, and roach clips but he primarily sells necklaces and rattles. His necklaces are made from the same materials as the chokers but have different pendants of turtles and bulls on them.

He started selling under the name Eagle Pipe Designs around two years ago, first ordering small amounts of materials at a time.

RELATED: JEDI’s Incubator Pitch Day Showcases Eight New Indigenous Businesses

This fall, Patles took part in JEDI’s Incubator Workshop, which supports its participants by providing resources, helps them to create a business plan, and hosts a pitch day. Patles’ plan is to continue selling and growing over the next few years.

“It was just something that I never thought I’d do,” said Pates. “I always thought it would just be small, for pow wows and friends.”

Rachel Smith is an intern with Huddle. Send her feedback and story suggestions: [email protected] .

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